Whole Foods Chicken Salad Recalled for Having No Chicken

It seems like the company Whole Foods has fallen victim to a rather bizarre confusion. It all began when one of its poultry suppliers sent the store a shipment of chicken soup. The only problem was that the supposed soup actually contained tuna and not a trace of chicken. This is the reason why the Willow Tree Poultry Farm, of Attleboro, Massachusetts has decided to recall about 440 pounds of “buffalo-style chicken salad”. According to a report, the Whole Foods employees discovered the mistake when they realized that the salad actually contained tuna, not chicken. According to a spokesperson for Willow Tree, it was actually cranberry-apple tuna salad in those packages.

An unusual confusion

The USDA is saying that the salad was recalled for “misbranding” and for containing an “undeclared allergen”. So, 12.5-ounce packages of “chicken salad” are affected by this recall, from stores in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Moreover, another problem was that one the packages it was the Whole Foods brand name, not the Willow Tree one. It’s worth noting that the USDA announced the recall on Saturday. Fortunately, by then, there have been no reports of allergic reactions or any other problems from the salad. Still, the USDA is strongly advising the customers to throw away the products or to return them to the stores.

Still some people are now wondering why the Willow Tree Poultry Farm was sending tuna shipments to Whole Foods. It must be noted that the farm doesn’t list tuna products on its official website. Well, according to a spokesperson for Willow Tree, the company also produces “private label” products but only for select Whole Foods stores. The person also added that the recall only affected 35 Whole Foods stores. So, it did not affect any of the products by Willow Tree.

Chicken salad with tuna

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time Willow Tree has issued a recall because of misbranding reasons. Back in January, the company did the exact same thing with a chicken salad that was actually containing egg salad. That time, Willow Tree discovered the issue after sending the product to a New Jersey store. No representative for Whole Foods has commented on the situation yet.